She took credit for something that she did not make and implicitly told the world that she could make things like that again.

She obscured the abilities of the people who actually could make the things she couldn’t.

The direct consequences of that kind of deceit are lost income for bloggers, authors, and journalists… as well as lost attention for academic’s and researcher’s work.

Is this really what we want as a culture?

Is that what it means to be an American?

To not only not respond, to not only not take responsibility for your actions, but to then let it turn into a partisan issue?

She has hurt people, she has done wrong, and I think we should all be asking for her to fix her mistakes.

To do otherwise… to sweep her plagiarism under the rug, to allow this to become a hissy fit political issue instead of the serious breach of ethics that it is, would do the American people a disservice.

Personal responsibility is an important part of our culture. It’s part of what made America great. Don’t let that part of us die in the hands of political tribes.